The triplets
by dreamgazer86
Summary: A little triplet story that I'm tossing around. I want to see what everyone thinks of it. The real summary will be inside.
1. The New World

**Hezers everyone! :D I'm so excited I loved this movie. Okay so this is an idea that I came up with shortly after I saw the movie, and it kinda centers around the fact that, did anyone else notice that the triplets never actually talked in the movie? D: Sure they giggled and made a lot of other noises, but they never actually SAID anything!  
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**So this is just an idea I've been tossing around that may explain. It probably isn't good at all, but its still worth a shot. So basically, the boys at a young age got hung up in a portal to our wold, they met some friends _and_ so now they travel back and forth between our world and theirs, this invovles some dimensional stuff and things like that but yeah. Also the story takes place about three months after the whole suitor buisness.  
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**But for the start, this is when they first discovered the dimensional rift, two years before the bear mother thing.  
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**Also I don't own Brave, or any thing associated with brave, (except for this story maybe)  
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_The new world  
_

The triplet princes slumped grumpily down the stone hallway of their castle. The boy in the middle, Hubert, was mumbling grumpily about how the plump woman from the kitchen wouldn't allow them any extra food after dinner. She insisted that they were fed enough at the table. True they got plenty of food at the dinner table, but still they never felt properly full.

The three turned a corner, and the boy on the left of Hubert, Hamish, tripped over something on the floor. Hubert halted and stuck out his arm, so as to stop the third brother, Harris, from following Hamish to the floor. All three boys looked to the source of Hamish's fall, which surprisingly enough, turned out to be a girl. A tall red-haired girl, with curly red hair, that sat wildly about her head. She wore a dark colored night gown and slippers. This girl was none other than their sister, the princess herself, Merida. Her bright blue eyes were filled with as much surprise as theirs as she looked between her tree brothers. In her lap was a bag their favorite treats, the little pies that the plump woman in the kitchen made so wonderfully. One in fact was hanging halfway out out her mouth, as she had clearly been biting into it before she was disturbed. Hubert glared at her. Noticing his brother doing this Harris fixed her with a glare, as well. Hamish got to his feet and, not wanting to be left out, fixed his sister with a glare, too. The girl, older than them by a good seven years, raised a finger to her lips, a sign for them to stay quiet.

Hubert silently held out a hand, gesturing a the bag in her lap. Merida glanced at it then shook her head gripping the bag tightly and pressing it close to her chest. Hubert raised an eyebrow and took in a deep breath, preparing to shout out. In on quick motion Merida leapt from the floor and clasped a hand over his mouth, "Shhh!"

Hubert pointed back to the bag of treats, clutched in her other hand, and again his sister gave her head a vigorous shake, her curls flying in all directions. Hubert elbowed Harris, who took a second to realize what Hubert wanted, but then he also took in a deep breath. "Fine! Fine!" Merida hissed. Harris immediately clamped his mouth shut. She looked back at Hubert, and sat the bag on the ground, holding up a finger of her free hand, 'one'.

Hubert pushed her hand from her hand, and hissed, "Each!"

Merida seemed to weigh her options for a moment. Give up three of her precious pies or face he mother, who would certainly scold her for, 'stuffing her gob'. Deciding she would rather give up the pies, she reached into the the bag and pulled three pies from her. She handed one to each of her brother, then disappeared down another hall of the castle. The boys wasted no time indulging in their treats.

Hubert was halfway through his, when he noticed something curious. The air was unusually still, like something important was about to happen. Then the air around Hamish began shimmering. Hamish who had finished his, was looking around to see what had caught his brother's attention. He quickly noticed the disturbance in the air around. Harris had noticed to. Hamish had a moment of panic, and made a move to get away from the disturbance. That's when the rift opened, sucking in Hamish. Hubert yelped in surprised, and reached out, grabbing his brothers hand, and Harris took his to try to help pull back their brother. Instead all three boys were sucked through, and the rift closed, leaving the hall quiet and at peace again.

~Forest, New York State~

Hamish was the first to hit the ground, there was a surprised squeal, then came Hubert, and finally Harris. Hamish at the bottom of the dog pile groaned and his brothers quickly proceeded to climb off and help him to his feet. The three looked up, and jumped back in surprise, upon seeing two girls. One stood a ways back looking surprised. The other, however, was standing rather close looking at them curiously.

The first thing they noticed about this girl was her hair. Curly red hair, like their sisters, but this girls wasn't near as long, only reaching to her chin and, rather than wild curls flying in every direction around her head, this girl's curls wear neat and all in a place. Hubert was willing to bet their mother would be in love if this girl would arrive at their castle and offer to show her how to do that with Merida's hair.

The next thing they noticed about the girl was the way she was dressed. She didn't wear a long dress, like the boys were accustomed to seeing women in. In fact they weren't quite sure what to call it. The top was a shirt, something only men wear, as far as they knew, but most of the time it was just to go under their robes, some didn't even have wear a shirt. In this girl's case however, it was the only thing covering her torso. The shirt was decorated very fancy to. Their was a big number 2 on the front and MDRC under that. The shirt was red, and the collar and ends of the sleeves were green. There seemed to be a theme for this outfit as well and their were flames erupting around the lettering, and on the sleeves. The bottom half of the outfit was the most curious however. "What are ya wearing?"

"How did you do that?" She was saying at the same time.

They both looked taken aback, "What?"

Then suddenly the girl began to giggle. "It's called shorts and a t-shirt, what are _you_ wearing?"

"Hey, I'm not the one wearing the untraditional cloths, _you_ are!" Hubert snapped at her.

The girl shook her head, "Maybe where you come from, but here, this is very much normal."

"What do ya mean, 'Where we come from'?"

"Well obviously you've come through a dimensional rift, which brings us back to my question. How did you do that?"

"Look, we didn't ask to be sucked into some 'rift' and be questioned by a lass who can't dress or talk," Hubert snapped at her.

"Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed," the girl said grumpily. "Your not even supposed to be able to get to our dimension. My mother blocked off any travel in and out of our dimension impossible years ago. It would take a great amount of power to reopen a rift..." she paused in her mumbling to realize that the three boys were giving her puzzled looks. "Oh sorry. Why don't we introduce ourselves."

Although the boys hadn't followed most of what she had said so far, they did know what that meant, and took no time in beginning introducing themselves. "I'm Hubert."

"The grumpy one," the red-haired girl assumed.

Hubert growled in frustration. "I'm Hamish," his brother said, before he could snap back. "I'm older than him by a minute. That's Harris the youngest."

"By thirty seconds!" Harris objected.

"Forty-five," Hubert corrected. Harris huffed. "We're the three princes." Then as if on a second thought added, "Of the clan DonBroch."

"Well, I'm Fianna. Fianna Chassidy. I go by many names however, as long as its not anything rude. I'm the youngest of two, with an older brother named Kyle," the girl told them.

Hubert glanced at the other girl. She looked identical the Fianna, all the way down to the freckles on her face. There outfits were the same and both had chin-length hair fixed into neat curls. Hubert frowned. "So, that's not your sister?"

The girls exchanged amused looks.

"We get that a lot, but we're only cousins," the second girl told them.

"Our mother's were twins, so we like to think that's where we get it," Fianna finished.

"I'm Rachel Cheyanne, I'll go by Rachel or Chey(1), but not Rach or Cheyanne. I don't go by Red either, for that matter," the second girl introduced herself.

The boy's were quite pleased with themselves, they had managed to understand most of what the girls had just said. They were about to ask Fianna about how she believed they got their, when suddenly there was a cry, and someone came crashing through the bushes around them. That someone tuned out to be another red-haired girl. She looked younger than Fianna and Rachel. In fact, she looked about the same age as the triplets. She too had neatly curled hair, but hers was shoulder length. She had bright blue eyes, unlike the older girls who dark emerald green one's. She wore the same outfit as the others, except she had a brown shoulder-bag slung across her chest. She was yelling frantically, "Fianna! Fiannna! Shaunie just... just," she paused in her yelling, as she had caught a glimpse of the boys.

"Hi," Hubert said with a little wave.

The girl immediately turned as red as her hair, her eyes shot to the ground, and she dug her toe nervously into the ground. Then she side-stepped to hide behind Fianna. Fianna smiled, "This is my youngest niece, Melony. Melony this his Hamish, Hubert, and Harris." The girl, not peeking out from behind her aunt, smiled sheepishly. Then something beeped, and Fianna looked down at a band on her wrist in alarm, "Oh we're late, Chey."

"Great," Rachel groaned. "Jordan'll have our heads." The girls were headed off in the opposite direction, before the boys had registered what they were saying, since they comprehended slow because of the funny way the girls talked.

"What!" Hubert shouted when it registered. "What about getting us back home?"

"I'll help you later, I promise, but right now I'm supposed to be somewhere!"

"So what are we supposed to do?"

"Make friendly with Melony," Fianna suggested, then her and her cousin were gone. There was an awkward silence, then Hamish's stomach growled. The girl seemed to perk up as she quickly reached into her bag and pulled out a bag of, sweets?

"Here," she said handing them each one of the mysterious treats.

"What is it?"

"A cookie," the girl giggled. "What you've never seen a cookie before."

"No," Hubert replied eyeing the 'cookie' suspiciously. Finally he stuck it in his mouth, and was quite delighted by the taste. It wasn't as good as the pies that the plump woman in the kitchen made, but still.

"Just don't tell anyone, okay? I'm not supposed to have them," Melony told them.

"Really?" Hubert asked, this comment catching his attention. "How did you get em'?"

"Stole them from the cookie jar. Mom disapproves, but..."

"How did you get them without being caught?" Hubert asked, as he had always wanted to know how their sister did it, but she refused to tell them.

"My big sisters. Their triplets like you guys. Reagen, Ariah, and Willow. Their teaching me the ins and outs of stealing sweets from the kitchen," Melony replied with a smile.

Hubert grinned evilly, as he thought that this might be the start of a beautiful friendship.

**He was right of coarse! :D So yeah I don't know, still debating this story. Did you love it, did you hate, review about it. If you think I should forget about it and delete it, then tell me, but if you liked it then tell me. **

**Also, anyone have a clue how old Merida and the triplets are? I just guessed but if anyone knows please tell me.  
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**Anywhoo, next time, the suitors are back. So... and I cant stress this enough, Review please!:D  
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	2. The Lords Return

**Wow, this did better than I thought it would. Well, first I would like to say thanks to those of you who favorited this or put it on your alert list. and a BIG thanks to my reviewer.**

**Fictionlover94: Thanks I appreciate it :D!(haha if you look at it at the right angle it kinda looks like he's got a beard or something)  
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**Now for chapter two, where we're gonna do stuff Yay!  
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**Also I still don't own Brave.  
**

_The Return of the Lords_

By the end of the day, Fianna had reopened the rift and determined that the wall between the two dimensions had simply weakened. She had wanted to try to repair it, but Melony had begged her to leave it alone. She wanted to see the boys again. So for her niece Fianna had agreed to leave it open, but warned the that they would have to keep it hidden, they couldn't have people from their dimension stumbling in and out of their dimension all the time. She also informed them that the rift would stay in the same spot every time.

After that the boys managed to hide the rift, with the help of Melony and the other, starting by putting up fake walls on either side of the hallway, then gradually making a real wall. The boys learned a lot of sneaky skills from Melony and her older sisters. They leaned every inch of the castle, including all of its secret passages. They also became very into pranks, through Melony.

Over the coarse of the following year or so, they became very close friends with all of the members of MDRC, the organization that Fianna, Rachel, and Melony were involved in. There closest bond however was with three of the girls their age. Melony, of coarse, then a blonde girl, called Panima, and a girl with light brown hair called Sidney. There was also Melony's cousin, Sean. Plus many other kids.

The triplets loved learning all about the culture of this other dimension. Loved trying the new foods and, maybe one of their favorite things about the new dimension, the sports. They greatly enjoyed the sports. They especially loved the sports they could play with the girls, who were very competitive. The people of their dimension were wrong, girls were so capable of playing with the guys.

The fascination with the other dimension was mutual. The children of MDRC would sit for hours listening intently as the triplet told them about their culture. They brought food from their dimension for the other kids to try told them about the sports they played. They sat in wonder and excitement the day they retold the story of how their father lost his leg and became known the bear king. They also loved to hear about how their older sister Merida defied every rule of what a princess or a 'lady' should be in their world. One could imagine how excited they were when the boys told them the story of how the suitors came to win Meida's hand and she showed them all up (the girls cheered rather loudly at this). They found it quite hilarious when the boys described how their bearified mother head scolded them for playing with the game heads mounted on the wall and laughed even harder when they told them about how their father had nearly squashed everyone trying to kill the 'bear', which was only Hamish and Hubert sending them on a wild goose chase. However no one laughed as hard as when they told about how they themselves had been turned into bear cubs and how Maudie had run screaming hysterically through the castle. Then everyone was on the edge of their seats when the boys described the fight with the cursed bear Mor'du.

Now three months after the suitors had left to return home, none with the of the hand of the princess, they were returning. The boys saw this as the perfect opportunity to bring Melony, Panima, and Sidney to their dimension, something they had been begging them to do for nearly a year. Now with an opportunity so perfect presented to them the boys decided to snatch it from the air. What made the situation so perfect for bringing over the girls was the fact the this time the clans would be bringing some of their young girls. The boys' mother had said this was so the girls might catch the eye of a boy from another clan. The boys knew their mother well enough to know that most of the time she didn't tell them the whole truth. In this case, they had figured out that the underlying reason that she didn't tell them about was the fact that the clans were bringing young girls in the hope of catching on of the three princes' eyes.

** Guralda Dimension: New York State, forested area...MDRC **

As they held out three dresses, Melony looked at them uncertainly. "Are you sure this will work?" She couldn't help but ask. Sure she wanted very much to go see the triplets dimension first-hand, but the whole thing seem rather crazy, she could think of a many things that could go wrong with this plan.

"Certain, their will be girls from all three clans coming this time, if they don't recognize you they'll just assume you're from one of the other clans," Hamish assured.

"I call the blue one!" Panima cheered happily running forward and taking a dark blue dress from Harris. She then disappeared up the stairs.

"What if someone asks what clan we're from?"

"We'd be in trouble if got talked to at all," Sidney pointed out, coming forward and taking dark brown dress from Hamish. "We're gonna have pretty distinct accents there you know."

"I've thought of that already," Hubert told them. "You'll be mute."

"You have mute girls in your dimension?" Melony questioned.

"Well, technically we refer to them as 'the girls who don't talk', but yeah its the same concept," Hubert replied, waving the red dress he had in his hands in front of her.

She took it and said, "This thing better not make me look bad."

After a few minutes of the boys snickering at Melony, Panima came back down the stairs. The boys gasped, the blue dress suited her quite well. It was simple. Long-sleeved, white under gown and a checkered, blue and white over gown. The neckline was decorated with a white ruffled trim and the sleeves, coming midway down her arm, her fitted, and flared out with a ruffly touch. The over-gown cover most of the skirt, except for were it split in a triangle in the front. The dress fastened by using lace on the front of the over-gown. Her blond hair was pulled up in a bun. "What do you think?" she asked the boys.

"You look great!" Harris replied.

"Yeah! You look like a real lass," Hubert joked.

Panima laughed, then down came Sidney. Sidney's dress was a four-pieced dress. A white chemise, that reached about mid-neck and had loose sleeves that were bound by cuffs at the wrist. A black, velvet bodice, that closed via lace in the front. The skirt was the same checkered designed as Panima's, except it was a dark brown and black and a shawl of the same design, with a black fringe. She smiled sheepishly as she pulled her hair up in a bun as well.

Then finally, came Melony. Her dress consisted of a white chemise, like Sidney's. A red bodice that laced up in the front and a red skirt, which opened in the front revealing a black under skirt. She looked at Hubert, "You lucked out."

He laughed, "You all look great."

"I know we do," Melony said as she pulled up her hair as well.

"Here," Harris said, handing them each a pair of slippers. Dark blue for Panima, Brown for Sidney, and red for Melony.

"Oh hey..." Panima's older brother, Luke said, coming into the living room with an apple in hand. "Why does my baby sister look like she just come fresh out of the fourteenth century?"

"I think she looks cute," his twin sister, Natalia, said following him in. The twins looked a lot alike. Both had black and nearly black eyes. Luke was taller than his sister by a couple of inches. Although they looked alike, they were very different in personality. Luke always had a mischievous glint in his eye and he was very fond of pocking fun at his sister, younger by two whole minutes. He was loud and opinionated. Natalia was more laid back and tended to keep her opinion to herself, unless, of coarse, it was something involving her brother.

"No one asked you," Luke said grinning evilly at his sister as she punched him in the arm.

"I can so feel the love," Harris said, sarcastically.

"Aww, come on, you don't this with your sister?"

"Well we don't even talk around our sister, so not really," Hamish pointed out.

"You know what's fun? Helping her beat Dad win they sword fight," Hubert said. His brothers laughed and nodded in agreement. Then Hubert began to run off a long list of does and don'ts that the girls would need to know.

Once he was done, Sidney said, "Wow, there are a lot of rules to being a girl in your dimension."

"Eh, it's just how we are," Hubert told her.

"These shoes are pinching the crap out of my feet!" Melony said, attempting to adjust the slippers so they weren't as uncomfortable, to no avail.

Then two black-haired girls came tromping down the stairs. The girl in the lead stopped. She was built rather small, with black shoulder-length hair and dark brown eyes. This was Panima's 11-year-old older sister Avery, and being loud and opinionated like her brother, naturally she said, "What are you wearing?"

The other girl, Katelyn, or Katie, noticed what Avery was talking about and promptly choked on her soda. She sputter and laughed as Avery shouted back up the stairs, "Veronica! Veronica come look at what your sister's wearing!"

"I'm coming!" A voice called back. "Gosh what's so... oh dear." A tall girl had come down stairs now, with long black hair swinging back and forth. She looked at her youngest sister, then at Avery and Katie, both doubled-over laughing. "Oh, you two are so mean, I think it looks cute on her."

"That's what I said," Natalia said, now standing on the stairs, behind Veronica. Luke was their two laughing along with the others.

"When are we leaving again?" Panima asked the boys, shooting an annoyed look toward her brother and sister.

"Now actually, the clans will be on our shores anytime, and Mum'll want us to be in the throne room when they arrive," Hamish replied.

"Alright well be careful you three," Veronica said, coming down the stairs and giving her youngest sister a hug.

Luke had stopped laughing and his expression had gone dead serious. He passed his sisters on the stairs and picked up Panima, hugging her tight, "I feel like a dad sending his daughter off to summer camp for the first time," he whispered in her ear, earning a small chuckle. He set her down and looked her over, then whispered, "You know no matter how much I make fun of that outfit, I know your gonna be the prettiest girl in that other dimension."

Panima smiled then said, "Pretty is such an average word."

"Well you make average look good," Leo joked, earning a giggle. With that Luke straightened up and looked down at the triplets. "If you three let anything happen to my sister..."

"You hunt us down like a dog, eat us for lunch, and use our bones to pick your teeth afterwards," Hubert said with a grin.

Leo bent down to where he was at eye level with the boy. "I'll gnaw on your bones until the marrow leaks out like sweet honey on my tongue."

"Gross, Luke," Natalia tried to interrupt.

"I'll leave no trace of your existence." Hubert gulped. "Now, you still think its funny."

Hubert gave his head a vigorous shake. "No, not funny at all."

"Good," Luke said, straightening up again and strolling back up the stairs.

Natalia rolled her eyes, "Have fun, and stay out of trouble."

"Are you kidding," three voices said as three identical red-haired girls popped up from behind the couch. Melony's three older sisters.

"Trouble's their middle names," the girl on the far left, Reagan, said.

"Well, they learned from the best," Avery pointed out.

"We take pride in everything we've taught them," Willow, the girl on the far right, replied.

Avery rolled her eyes. "Just don't get eaten by bears," Avery joked. She then turned and bolted up the stairs as Katie followed after.

"Cause lots of trouble," the girl in the middle, Ariah, said, grinning at them.

"Bye, boys," All three girls said sweetly, with mischievous grins. This was never good, but before the boys could question them, the girls disappeared again.

"Come on," Hubert sighed, leading everyone toward the door to the kitchen. In the kitchen, Melony's oldest sister Angela sat at the table, helping their blond twin brothers, Nicolas and Austin, with a puzzle.

Fianna and Rachel were sitting on the counter and as they came through Fianna jumped down in their way. "Leaving?"

"Yeah, we need to get back," Hubert told her.

She nodded and looked at her niece. "Here," she said reaching into her pocket. She pulled something out and placed it in Melony's hand. The red-haired girl looked at it. It was a small, red pocket knife, nothing really fancy.

"Oh, no Fianna!" Melony said, shaking her head and trying to give the knife back.

Fianna shook her head as well, and closed Melony's hand around the knife, "Take it Mel, for good luck. This way I'll be with you."

Melony smiled and held it to her chest, "Thanks Fi."

Angela looked up from the puzzle and said, "You leaving then?"

"Yeah," Melony replied.

"See ya."

"Bye, Melony!" The boys cheered, waving.

"Bye boys," Melony called back to her brothers. As they came down the hallway to the door, they found three little girls playing on the floor in front of the door. Two red-haired girls, one was Melony's baby sister, Danella, and the other was Fianna's little sister, Olivia. The third was a little blond girl, with big blue eyes. This was Raylee. The three were around a year old. They looked up as the six older kids approached. Danella looked at her with a question clear in her eyes, but naturally with seven older siblings to talk for her, Danella didn't talk much.

Luckily for her, Raylee asked the question that was clearly on Danella's mind. _Where are you going? _She asked speaking with her hands rather than her voice, although that didn't make it any less choppy and difficult to understand, as she was still learning.

_"Just on a little vacation with the boys, I'll be back soon," _Melony promised, using both her voice and her hands, although her signing wasn't much better than Raylee's. With that they were out the door, and off to the rift in the woods.

They reached the rift, and something else occurred to Melony, as she slipped her aunt's knife into her slipper. "What if we have to communicate when people are around?"

"Already thought of that, you'll sign," Hamish replied.

"Okay, I know they don't have signing in your dimension," Melony told him.

"Your right we don't, it'll be your own special little language. Now come on!" Hubert said, grabbing her hand and pulling her into the rift. The two vanished immediately and the other four followed in after them.

**Limera Dimension: Highlands of Scotland, DunBroch Territory... Castle**

Melony yelped when they came out of the rift, then punched Hubert in the arm, "That was _soo _not cool!"

"What," Hubert said, rubbing the spot where she hit him. Then the rift glowed again and Hamish, Harris, Panima, and Sidney came tumbling out.

Panima jumped to her feet excitedly and said, "That was _soo_ cool!"

Hubert gestured to the blond girl, as if her reaction proved some kind of point. Melony just huffed and turned away, nose in the air and arms crossed. They heard movement on the other side of the nearby wall, and all three of the boys dashed a spot on the floor. Harris was the first there, and bent down throwing up the tile, and revealing one of their secret passageways. Hamish and Harris jumped in, but Hubert turned to the girls to whisper, "Stay here and be quiet." Then he too, was gone. Three came back up on the other side of the wall, right in front of their sister, who was looking around calling their names.

She gave a startled cry when she saw them and then a friendly smile. "Where have you three been all morning?"

"Causin' trouble," Hubert replied, the reply was short and sweet like he preferred. He liked to talk as little as possible around the people of his dimension. Not because he had anything against them, but he spent so much time in the other dimension that his accent was very light now. If he put his mind to it, he could make his accent sound normal, but he was always afraid he would slip up. Hamish and Harris were the same way.

"Well ya' missed breakfast," their sister told them, tossing them black back. Hubert picked it up and looked inside. As he had expected it was full of Merida's dessert. Including the delightful cakes that Maudie made so well. "You three better hurry, Mum'll be mad if your late," she told them, ruffling Hamish's hair as she left them. The boys disappeared in the floor again and reappeared back in the hall with the girls.

"Come on, " Hubert said, gesturing for the girls to follow them. The three jumped down with them and the boys lead them down the secret passageways under the floors. "We'll have to come out first, because we have to be there when the clans arrive. Once the clans get here you will come out. The room will be full, so you should go unnoticed. After that you'll just be part of the crowd."

"Sounds simple enough," Melony said as they come to a stop.

"Good, see ya on the other side," Hubert joked, lifting up the tile above them and climbing out with his brothers.

"Hey! The boys are here!" There father, King Ferges, said loudly, waving toward the boys, stumbling up the steps to their seats.

"You got here just in time boys. The clans are marching from the boats right now," their mother, Queen Elinor told them. Then gave a disapproving sigh, "Hamish, you've gotten dirt on your face." She reached over and tried to rub the dirt from the youngest brother's cheek.

"Mum!" Harris whined pushing her hand away. "I'm Harris."

Elinor was about to reply, but then a guard stepped into the room and announced, "The clans of Dingwall, Macintosh, and McGuffin have arrived!"

With that he quickly stepped out of the way, as the doors flung open and in stomped the lords followed closely by their clans. The boys had been right, the clans had brought lots of young girls. All looking around the boys age. Elinor leaned over to the boys and whispered, "Look at all the young ladies, boys."

"You noticed there are no young _boys,_" Hubert muttered so only his brothers could hear.

"Yeah who's eyes are they going to catch but ours," Hamish whispered under his breath as well, giving a triumphant smirk. The boys grinned at each other, happy that their observations had been right. As the crowd began to settle and their mother stood to begin her welcoming speech, the boys saw the girls come up from the floor and slipped from the Macintosh crowd over to the McGuffins.

"Welcome clans!"

"Ay', welcome!" Ferges called from his throne.

"Last time you arrived here, you were here with the hope that your suitor would bring honor to your clan, by winning the hand of the fair maiden..." She gestured to Merida, who smiled. She looked much different than the last time the clans had come. This time she had been allowed to leave her hair down, so it sat in a wild mess around her head. She also wore a long dark blue dress and white shoes. The dress wasn't tight but rather loose, like Merida preferred. "by out doing the other suitors in a trial of the maiden's choice." Everyone nodded remembering the previous visit, when Merida had chosen archery, which Dingwall won by chance. "But today you are here in the hope that your suitor will bring honor, by winning the heart of the fair maiden. You will all have a month to convince Princess Merida, that you are the one she want to marry. At the end of the month, she will announce, which suitor she chooses, if any."

The crowd cheered, as the Lords brought forth their sons, the three suitors.

Wee Dingwall had grown a few inches, catching up with his father. He still held a vacant expression, as he made an attempt to move behind the big Dingwall guard. He was nice and all but Merida thought it would be better for him to have a wife that was... on the same intelligence level.

Macintosh hadn't changed at all, he was still about Merida's height, with long black hair. His sword was sheathed at his side, as he flexed, causing his group of fan girls to scream excitedly. Merida liked his swordsmanship, it was something she could relate to, but she didn't like his over-confidence. She found it very obnoxious. She didn't want to marry someone who was that self-centered, someone who craved so much attention, one would think he was starved of it as a child.

Then there was McGuffin, he had caught up to his father in height as well. Tall and burly, with broad shoulders and muscular arms. She liked that about him, it reminded her of her father and well she was a daddy's girl. He was shy though and his speech wasn't very good. For these reasons, she didn't know much about his personality.

She didn't know how she was going to make this choice.

"Now," her mother was saying, "Our fair maiden has a few words."

This was Merida's cue. As she was standing to make her speech, she saw something out of the corner of her eye that caught her attention and made her pause. Her brothers were looking at something off towards the McGuffin crowd. She followed their gaze and noticed three girls, standing off, towards the far end of the McGuffin crowd. One had neat, curly red locks, with emerald green eyes that were watching her closely. To this girl's right was a little blond girl, with big brown eyes, that was looking around the crowd, but kept glancing up at the boys. The third girl, on the far left, had light brown hair, here blue eyes were fixed on the McGuffin boy, and she looked rather taken aback by his size. All three of the girl's had unusually short hair. They didn't seem like they belonged in the crowd. Merida shook the thought off.

"Well, I'm quite shocked to be honest," She started, speaking as loudly and clearly as possible. Her and her mother had made silent agreements since the whole bear incident. I work to improve this and you work to improve that. One of the things on Merida's list of improvements was her speech skills, which she had worked very hard on. "I mean I didn't think I made much of an impression last time. Who honestly wants a girl with wild hair, who is as unladylike as you can get?" She gave a warm smile, as the crowd laughed slightly. Dingwall still looked quite vacant, Macintosh was laughing, but stopped to flex his muscles for his admirers, McGuffin smiled back warmly, and when she met his eye he looked quite stunned and blushed furiously. "But since you all took the first step of this journey, I shall take the second. I have sat and thought of something for each of the suitors, an activity if you will, to do with me. A sort of one on one time, between me and the suitor. As a way to get to know each other. So for Macintosh," she was coming down the steps know, "A day, me, you..." she approached him, they were on eye level, he flipped his hair and she smirked, reaching down and yanking his sword from hits sheath, "and our swords."

He looked pleased, "Think your good enough to out do me, Princess?"

"We'll see, won't we?" Merida replied. She walked away from him and and started towards Dingwall. "Dingwall," the boy jumped at the sound of him saying name. "You made a lucky shot last time you all were here, but I'm curious to see if there is true skill behind that, so a day on the archery range." Dingwall smiled, that didn't seem to bad. "And McGruffin." With that she turned back around to walk towards the McGuffin's. "You were rather difficult, I don't know much about you, other than your rather quite and shy." He looked rather disappointed at this and feared what she could have chosen. He almost wanted to hid behind his father now. "So, I decided, I day in the woods perhaps. Just you and me, and maybe a couple horses..." She saw her brothers looking towards the girls again, she glanced their way and saw that red-haired one was attempting to slip something into her shoe. "To talk, so I can learn more about."

McGruffin breathed an inner sigh of relief. He loved the woods, it was so quiet and peaceful their. Merida smiled at all of them, spared one last look towards the mysterious girls then turned to return to her seat. Elinor stood back up then and said, "Now, I say we feast!"

**And the end of that chapter, Gosh that took forever. Anyway, so we are reintroduced to the suitors Yay! I tried to be fair and give the suitors something good and bad for Merida to consider, but it was rather difficult to think of a good positive for Dingwall. So anywhoo... the characters from MDRC we saw, they'll all be back, I wouldn't put so much effort into introducing them if they weren't coming back. **

**Don't forget to review and next time, dinner with the suitors and we'll meet another very important little girl :D  
**


	3. The first Night

**Alright I bet you guys had given up on me, right? No I didn't discontinue this, I just got a really bad case of writer's block. Hopefully updates will come more regularly now. **

**Hope you enjoy!  
**

****_~The First Night~  
_

**Guralda Dimension: New York State, forested area, MDRC**

"I still don't think its a good idea," the girl said shaking her head.

"What's the worst that could happen?" Fianna shrugged from atop her bed. "Its just a fun learning experience that's all."

"The worst that could happen? What if Melissa follows them?"

"The rift is in the forest and there's no way Melissa can get into the forest, remember? It'll take care of her before she gets within ten feet of it," the fiery-haired girl reminded laying a card down on the pile.

"I said 'what if'," the girl grumbled, placing her own down.

"You should stop looking at the negative and be-sandwich!" she shouted abruptly slamming her hand down on the pile. The hands of her companions were soon to follow. "Ha! I got it!"

"Dang, Kasumi could you hit any harder?" the boy to Fianna right, James, asked rubbing his hand gingerly.

"Sorry," the little Japanese girl, Kasumi, said sheepishly.

"Look Renee, there's nothing to worry about, they'll be alright."

"I hope your right."

"So what do you think there doing now?"

**Limera Dimension: Highlands of Scotland, DonBroch territory, Castle**

"They won't talk."

"They must be from the Dingwall Clan. I heard they're all stupid!"

"How do you plan to get one of the princes by being stupid?"

"Please, everyone knows no one from the Dingwall clan stands a chance. Us McIntoshes will have them hands down!"

Sick of hearing the arrogant girls talk among themselves as though she could not hear, or was to stupid to understand them, Melony stood from her spot and left in search of a new table. By time Panima and Sidney had figured out what she was doing and stood to follow, Melony was half way across the room. When they caught up Melony signed, _Bullies are everywhere._

The two nodded in agreement. They took a seat at a remotely empty table and examined the room as they chewed on food they'd never seen before. Sydney pointed to a plate stacked with chicken legs, or at least that's what it looked like, and raised an eyebrow at her friends in a silent challenge, the other two grinned their acceptance and the three began in their quest to eat more of the, admittedly delectable, legs than their opponents.

**Elsewhere**

Merida looked up as her three brothers crowded into the spots across from her on the long table. She was seated at the table on the opposite side of the room as the lords and her parents, not exactly into the idea of listening to the four men have heated debates about trifle things. The triplet in the middle, she thought it might be Hubert, raised his eyebrows and pointed to the empty spots on either side of her, obviously wondering the same thing she was: Where were the suitors? She shrugged.

"That's how you get a girl," she heard the one on the right mumbled. Merida giggled. It was a rare occurrence to hear one of the boys come off with anything more than a two or three word sentence, some people thought they were incapable of coming up with anything. Clearly, however, it wasn't the case.

"I'm sure they'll turn up."

As though on cue, the spot, or rather two spots, on Merida's right was suddenly occupied by the bulky figure of the McGuffin boy. He smiled nervously down at Merida, who returned with a bright smile. "Hello!"

He responded with a small wave, then another was offered to the boys, who returned it. An awkward silence followed, in which time they were joined by Dingwall, who merely waved like McGuffin had. The silence wasn't broken until Macintosh came over. He looked the spots taken on each side of the princess. His eyes first fell on McGuffin, but he seemed to decide he didn't want to pick a fight with a guy at least three times his size so instead he approached Dingwall. "What do you think you're doing."

Dingwall seemed to consider the question a moment, before replying. "Sitting."

As McIntosh sparked an argument between himself and the other boy, Merida saw the triplets begin to look at each other, and she could practically see the wheels turning. The boy to the right plucked a roll from a nearby plate and the other two grinned at him. Merida buried her face in her arms and tried to keep from laughing, as she already knew what was going to happen.

The boy with the roll threw the bread, making it fly across table and it made contact with the side of the Young Macintosh's head. The boy dropped his focus from Dingwall and whipped his head around to look for the source of the assaulting bread, and found himself being pelted with an arsenal of the rolls, flying from the hands of the three princes. He shouted a curse that turned the heads nearby, and leapt across the table. The boys slipped under the table before the older boy made it across and took off across the dining hall, Macintosh in hot pursuit. Dingwall scrambled after, leaving Merida alone with MacGuffin.

The princess sat a moment chuckling as she watched the dark-haired boy chase her brothers around the room, placed her fork on the plate and said, "Well, I'm rather tired. I think I'll be off te bed, now."

She stood and McGuffin tried to stood quickly after, awkwardly knocking the table. He managed to get himself loose from the thing and turned, relief washing over him when he found the princess still standing there, eyes wide with what could have been curiosity, or maybe amusement. "I could accompany ye... if ye'd like, that is." The words came out faster than he wanted and ran together in a manner that was probably uncomprehendable. He blushed at his mess up, but the princess smiled at him and gave a slight nod.

He knew his smile must have split his face. How did she understand him? He could hardly understand himself, and he knew what he was supposed to be saying? _Maybe she guessed, _he thought as he came in stride with the fiery-haired girl. If she was that intuitive, than he may still have a chance with her, even if his anxiousness never got out of his way.

"So..." the princess started, but she trailed off awkwardly. "Why'd ye come back?"

He had predicted she would ask a question along these lines and many times before, ever since he had told his dad to send an letter of acceptance back to the Queen, he had planned out the answer that would be the most honest and also the most heart winning. The words he had decided on whizzed across his mind, but he found himself now terrified that his nerves would get the best of him and it would spoil the well thought out response. So instead he gave his shoulders a shrug._ Idiot! _he scolded immediately. _Now you've made her think you don't even care!_

"Well, in any case, I'm glad you did."

He blinked and looked over at her, just in time to see her eyes widen as though she was catching herself in something, she then added. "All of you I mean. Last time ye were here I didn't give ye much of a chance, since I was to caught up in my own problems. I'd like to get to know all of you, even if none of ye are who I'm looking for."

McGuffin nodded, slightly disappointed. _She's being open-minded. _he thought, _That's a good thing. It means you have a chance!_

"Well, here we are!" the girl stopped suddenly in front of a large wooden door. He felt another swell of disappointment, but smiled and gave a farewell bow. She curtsied slightly in response, then spoke. "Thank ye. Ye know, for keeping me company."

He nodded with a smile. Then she turned and disappeared behind the door. He realized he was holding his breath, and let it out as he turned to head for his own quarters, on the ship. He had heard Macintosh grumbling about not getting a room in the castle, but as far as he was concerned, that was fine. It would probably have been difficult to find a bed his size in the castle anyways, and he liked the slow swaying of the boat on the water. It helped him sleep.

"Hey! McGuffin!" _Great, _he thought, resisting the erge to roll his eyes as the dark-haired Macintosh boy approached, Dingwall walking a short distance behind. "So Where did you disappear to?"

"No where."

"I don't know what you're saying."

"Maybe you shouldn't ask people questions if you don't plan on listening to what there saying," Dingwall put in absently.

"I was planning on listening. I just don't understand him."

"Did you try to listen?"

"Well," Macintosh stammered a moment be fore finding his ground again. "Of course I tried!"

"Don't yell at me. I was only making a suggestion."

"You now, in Macintosh I punch people in the mouth who smart off to me!"

"Really? Well its a good thing we're no in Macintosh, then. Because you would be very sorry if you hit me."

McGuffin could see trouble already and began to edge around the arguing pair. "Where are you going?" the two asked together, taking their eyes off of each other to look at him.

"I'm going to bed," McGuffin responded.

A moments pause and Macintosh leaned over to Dingwall and whispered, "Do you know what he said?"

"See!" Dingwall snapped throwing up his stick-like arms. "This is exactly what I was saying!"

"What?"

McGuffin took the time to escape, listening to there voices fade behind him. He didn't want the princess to think he was a part of the argument happening only ten paces away from her door. His mother had warned him that if he wanted to win the girl's hand, the number 1 rule was to not fight or bicker with the other two in front of her, and besides that, he didn't bickering this late anyhow.

"Hey, there." McGuffin jumped at the sound of the voice, looking down to see he had nearly stepped on one of the fiery-haired princes.

"Umm."

"So you walked my sister to her room, huh?" He nodded slowly. "How sweet."

"Umm, thank you," he said unsurely.

"You're welcome."

"You understood me!" he exclaimed realizing there was no pause in the response of the younger boy.

A pause followed his words this time. "You really need to slow down. That'll help your problem with not being understood."

"You'll have to excuse Harris," one of the others said, coming up beside the other. "He has a habit of speaking before he thinks."

"Technically, you have to think before you speak, because the brain sends the message it wants to be sent to the vocal cords, which carry the message to the recipient," The third pointed out, coming up on the other side of the second boy.

"Thank you, Hamish, for confusing me," the middle boy responded, that must be Hubert if he remembered the names correctly.

"You're welcome."

"Would you get back down there!" Hubert snapped, shoving the other two back down. Then he looked at McGuffin, "You didn't see anything."

Then he was gone, leaving the older boy to stand there looking confused. He shook his head and continued on. He found his way to the ship after getting lost in the castle at least five times then a few more times in the village. When he finally got to his room, he found his father waiting there. "So?"

"So what?"

"So you're doing the best so far!" The man said, proudly pounding him on the back.

"How do you know?"

"Because the other two were going at each other an chasing the princes around the hall!" he boomed with laughter. "you should have seen Lord Macintosh. He was furious with his son!"

"What does that prove? It's up to the princess," he replied, although he knew that chasing the little brothers around, arguing like little kids, and disturbing the girl when she was trying to sleep were not good ideas. "I can't even have a decent conversation with her!"

"But she thinks that's cute! Didn't you hear her giggle last you were here?" The man pointed out. That was true, when he had stood up for her against his father, she had giggle. She had a really cute giggle, too.

"It won't be cute after day of it!"

"You'll get past it! You just have to get over the anxiety! And talk a little slower!" Wasn't that the same thing Prince Harris had said?

"I'll work on it," he mumbled flopping onto the bed.

_~Castle~_

"So which one do you want her to pick?" Panima wondered aloud, as the three boys lead them to the secret room they would be sharing.

"Us? I don't know."

"Oh, come on! There's got to be one you think deserves her."

"I don't think anyone deserves her," Hubert snapped. "I don't want anyone to deserve her."

"Yeah, I already have to share her with three other guys. I don't want to have to compete with another for her attention," Harris put in.

"Sounds like me and Luke," Panima murmured.

"It's exactly like that. So are you jealous of Rue?"

"What? No! I don't get jealous!"

"Whatever," Hamish snorted. "Jealousy is a common feeling, everyone gets jealous."

"Quite using big words! I don't understand them!"

"He didn't even use any big words!" Sidney objected.

"He did in my opinion!"

"Well no one cares about your opinion," Panima teased.

"I do!"

"My point exactly."

"Hey! What's that s'posed to mean?"

"Here we are!" Hamish called back, cutting off the pair. He gave the seemingly blank wall in front of him a push, and it swung open to reveal a decently sized room, especially for being built under the floor. The room's walls were stone like the rest of the castle, as was the ceiling and was large enough for the six small kids to stand in together, with room for more company, and the ceiling stood tall enough that the boy could stack themselves on each others shoulders and still have a bit of room above their heads. The underground room was well lit with torches that sat in thick metal brackets lining the walls, but the light flickered idly, unlike the steady like electricity offered back home. On the floor were three thickly layered cots.

"Wow!" Melony breathed, turning a circle to take it all in.

"This is like the size of Chey's room back home!" Panima exclaimed, staring around.

"Do you know what it was used for?"

"We can't say for sure," Hamish replied.

"You think it was, like, a small wine cellar or something?" Sidney wondered, running a hand across the stone wall.

"No," Hubert responded. "It's to small to be a wine cellar, even a small one."

"I think it was the Head Maid's room. Maudie's room is about this big, at least," Harris pointed out.

"Maybe," Hubert replied absently.

"Hmm, I always imagined cots being less comfortable," Melony said distractedly, sitting on the one across from the entrance.

"Why would you think that?" Hubert snorted.

"Well, Grandpa sure makes them out to be extremely uncomfortable," Melony replied with a shrug.

"Oh," Hubert chuckled. "I think anything would be uncomfortable if you're also having to worry about being shot at in the middle of the night."

"Good point."

"We'd better get back to our room," Harris called from the exit. "Mom'll be around to check on us soon, and we don't need her asking questions tonight."

"Alright," Hubert replied, heading towards it himself. "We'll bring breakfast in the morning."

"We'll be here," Melony called after as the door closed behind the red-haired brothers.

**~Guralda Dimension: New York City: Unkown Location~**

"You're sure this plan will work?"

"Of course I'm sure. The barrier grows weaker by the hour. Soon, a new rift will open in a more... convenient location."

"And how do you plan to find it?"

"That's the job of our secret weapon."

"What secret weapon?"

"Raven." At the call, a small dark-haired girl stepped from the shadows.

"You called.

**Okay, so that's it. Next time we'll see more of the struggle for Merida's heart and meet a new character who is one of my particular favorites. ****  
**

**Don't forget to drop off a review!  
**


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